Suitcase Fusion Symbol

[glennda]

OSX 10.4.11
Suitcase Fusion 12.1.6 Using Auto Activation and Font Sense
Quark 7.3
InDesign CS3 5.0.3

This is a new position for me, and this company has been having a lot of font problems that I haven't encountered in quite a while. In my previous 2 companies, we used Font Reserve with Auto-Activation off. Operators created job-specific sets and activated fonts as needed.

We are having the following problems:

1. The most obvious: we have multiple versions of the same fonts on our server, and the wrong font opens and we get reflow.

2. We pick up old jobs that use characters like the "greater than or equal to" or "plus or minus" math symbols. The applications see the character as being in the same font as the rest of the paragraph (universe, futura, etc.) but in reality it is coming out of the symbol font. If we don't activate Symbol, the character drops out and we get a blank space. The obvious solution is to load the symbol font, except that opens the door to operator error:

The application does not alert you that the symbol font is not loaded. The font usage does not show symbol as being used. The character is often on a text-heavy page, and the operators don't notice it is missing. Suitcase does not automatically activate the font. When the job is "collected for output" either through the application or Flightcheck, it does not collect symbol even though it is loaded.

3. (I saved the worst for last) More than one operator will work on the same job. Operator A works on a job, using fonts available to Suitcase on their machine. Operator B then opens the job, but the correct fonts are not available to Suitcase on their Mac. Suitcase will then load any available version of a font with the same name. So if Operator A used Postscript Type 1 Helvetica Bold Italic (plain), when Operator B opens the job, the FILE is now changed to use Helvetica.dfont (bold, italic). No warning is given, and unless the operator checks Font Usage immediately, the file is permanently changed when it is saved. We have had fonts change from Helvetica Heavy (plain) to Helvetica.dfont (bold), etc. From what I've been able to track, we have only had this happen in Quark, not in InDesign, but we still receive more Quark files than InDesign because our clients are more corporate than agency, and they are slow to change.

Has anyone experienced anything like this? I would like to hear input on what settings people are using with Suitcase Fusion. We can't use a server version of the application because our IT department is more Windows focused and our work requires a high level of security, so doing anything server-wide will require an act of congress and special papal dispensation.

Any input is greatly appreciated.

 

[jkidwell]

Hi Glennda,

The problems that you're having seem to be because you may not have the correct settings implemented in the auto-activation plug-in.

There is a setting that controls whether the plug-in picks the best match if the user does not have the font installed. If you disable this setting, then it will be immediately apparent that the font is not available (in the case of your symbol font.)

If you enable Font Sense, then you can be sure that the correct font is always active, since it doesn't activate the font based just on the PostScript name, but by precise identification of a variety of metrics. Suitcase Fusion is able to read Font Sense information that was saved using Font Reserve, so you'll always use the right fonts, even in older documents.

A server-based font manager would definitely help your situation, especially the problem where not all users are diligent about having all necessary fonts on their machine. Something to note to your IT department would be that Universal Type Server can run on either a Windows or Mac server, and is administered through a web-based interface. This was done specifically for IT folks to make their job easier.

If you have any other questions or issues that you'd like to resolve, please contact our free technical support:

North America: (503) 274-7030
Outside the US: +44 (0) 1604-654-270

Jim Kidwell
Extensis

 

[rich apollo]

glennda,
Are you in a design or prepress environment? Auto activation is a great idea in a single user environment. In a multi-user scenario auto-activation should never be on. In prepress this is doubly so. This is, of course, barring the use of a font server.

Every job should have it's own folder of fonts. When working on native documents, I have always kept a folder on my desktop into which I copy the font folders of jobs. I activate the fonts from this local copy. When finished with that job I deactivate the fonts and activate the fonts for the next job. If you're in a creative group, then the person who initializes the piece should create a folder of fonts specific to that project.

Every system on the network needs to have the fonts pared down to the very minimum. OSX has no less than 4 locations in which active fonts can reside (this is unfortunate) so font conflicts are not just possible but very likely. Apple also took the most widely used font in existence - Helvetica - and made it a system font. I really wish they hadn't done that.

 

[glennda]

Thank you for responding

Thank you for responding

Thank you both for responding.

We are using Suitcase on individual Macs, with Font Sense turned on.

Rich, I agree with you. I have never seen auto-activation used before, but here they insist on using it. I have always used "job-specific" sets and activated them manually as needed.

Server solution is not in the cards, due to IT security concerns. IT is last word.

This is both a design and a prepress environment. It is a graphics department with in-house printing. We design, but also receive files from "client" departments and outside ad agencies, perform prepress and send to in-house digital printing and out-of-house offset.

So we are design-mentality trying to be prepress-printing while still behaving like designers.

(sigh!)

The symbol problem is more insidious. The applications don't recognize symbol as being used at all. Font Usage (or Find Font) does not show Symbol missing or in use. When you select over the character, it shows as the same font as the rest of the body copy. But if symbol is not active, the character drops out. And even if you have symbol loaded, it doesn't collect, because Flightcheck or the apps don't see it as necessary. If you manually change the character to Symbol, it looks exactly the same (weight doesn't change or anything) and it will now collect. The problem is that the character is usually buried in small body copy, and the operators don't notice it when they pick up an old job.

It is a throwback to system 9 and Quickdraw and older fonts. If the character was not available to the font, the system would substitute Symbol for one character.

I think I'll have to fight to have the auto-activation turned off, because if Font Sense does not find the correct font, it substitutes anything close, and actually changes the document. If the file is saved, the change is now permanent. Since the Helvetica dfont is aways available, it changes to that, and that font doesn't rip at our Indigo!

Well, any further input will be appreciated. I'm afraid this sounds like something that will linger.

Thanks again.

 

[jkidwell]

Hi Glennda,

If you have the following conditions met then the correct font should always be activated:

1. Auto-activation enabled.
2. Font Sense turned on
3. All of the appropriate fonts necessary for the document must be in the Suitcase Fusion database.

If you don't want to have font substitutions made, be sure to turn off the plug-in preference to do that.

If you're still having issues, I would definitely recommend contacting support. There may be font corruption or other issues that are affecting your workflow.

Jim Kidwell
Extensis

 

[glennda]

suitcase saga continues...

suitcase saga continues...

Thank you Jim,

You're right. The reason the incorrect fonts are loading is because the correct font is not always available. I guess the creative people should not be using auto-activation. We don't have a server-based font management, and every machine has different fonts, but jobs are passed from designer to designer.

It seems that this problem falls more in the "user error" catagory. In a perfect world, the designers would collect the fonts and the next person could pick up those fonts. Unfortunately, that is our procedure. It just isn't followed!

Server based font-management seems to be the only solution that would require less operator diligence. But again, our IT department is inflexible on this.
We don't even have "administrator" access to our Macs anywhere in our department. To do anything, we have to call IT and make an appointment! And when you tell them it's a Macintosh, they act like we've asked them to work on a live bomb!

Thanks again, guys. I appreciate the input.

I am curious about the Symbol font thing, though. Has anyone else had similar situations? I've never seen this before, but we use the math symbols and greek symbols quite a bit.

 

[pcmodem]

How are you transferring files to the other computers?

To straighten out your font situation. You could buy one license of Font Agent Pro. Take all of the fonts from all of the computers and run them through Font Agent Pro. This would organize all of your fonts and then you could distribute them to everyone.

 

[jkidwell]

If you want to organize all of your fonts in one single location and are a Suitcase Fusion user, there's absolutely no need to buy anything else.

Simply use Font Doctor to scan your files and organize all of your fonts into a single folder. It will even do a deep scan of all of your fonts to check for corruption. Font Doctor comes free with the purchase of Suitcase Fusion. To try it out, you can download Font Doctor here:
http://tinyurl.com/65fbvj

Jim Kidwell
Extensis

 

[glennda]

thanks

thanks

How are you transferring files to the other computers?

To straighten out your font situation. You could buy one license of Font Agent Pro. Take all of the fonts from all of the computers and run them through Font Agent Pro. This would organize all of your fonts and then you could distribute them to everyone.

Procedure is that the designers are supposed to collect all fonts and put them on the server with the job. Unfortunately, the procedure is rarely followed.

Another problem is that fonts are supplied with jobs by outside agencies, and those are filed with that job. But because the users have Suitcase set to copy all fonts into the vault, they wind up using those fonts in other jobs, not realizing they are not our fonts.

I'm coming to the conclusion that this is a user problem. Even if we issue a new set of fonts to everyone, that will soon become obsolete as new fonts come in from clients and outside design agencies.

Thank you, everyone, for your help.

I am curious, though. Has anyone else had the Symbol font problem?